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Why your HR Team must embrace Blockchain Tech

For three years and one day, carpenters in Germany go on an apprenticeship tour. They carry a small book where the master carpenters they have worked for provide details of the work they have done. The reference is then stamped. That serves as evidence of expertise of the newly minted carpenter. It provides a document that shows the acceptance of the young journeyman to be a member of the carpenter’s guild.

Unverified trust leads to misuse

Human beings need to trust each other before they can engage with each other. Doctors, especially those who have qualified recently, display their certificates to gain trust. According to the Union Government’s rules, in India anyone who has done a Homoeopathy, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha or Sowa course is authorised to treat a patient. But they cannot prescribe allopathy medicines. The patient has no way of knowing what kind of medicines the doctor is authorised to prescribe. This sets up conditions ripe for fake doctors and fake medicines.

The technology of trust

What if you could use an app to routinely verify your doctor’s credentials before making an appointment. Imagine if the patients knew which degrees the doctor has and how frequently the doctor upgrades his/her knowledge base. Blockchain technology removes the need for intermediaries (like the notary or in some cases a government official) to verify a document. It is a technology to build trust because it is a publicly available ledger. Any modification has to be “approved” by majority of the users.

Blockchain for the job market

That may be changing soon thanks to blockchain-based solutions in governance with digital certification of education degrees, which will be issued using the distributed computing technology starting with batches graduating in 2019. IIT Bombay and colleges under the Delhi University will be the first ones to receive these indigenous blockchain-based credentials, called Indiachain.

The biggest beneficiary of blockchain tech could be a firm’s HR function. Every IT firm has a list of fake organisations that provide fake degrees and fake certificates of work experience.

Today 58 per cent employers have caught a lie on a resume, according to Careerbuilder. People embellish skills, responsibilities, employment dates, job titles, academic degrees, companies worked for, accolades/awards received, everything that can give them an advantage in their career. MIT has launched Blockcerts to verify blockchain-based certificates for academic and professional credentials, workforce development and civic records. That could prevent people submitting fake degrees from fake colleges and fake degrees from real colleges.

New patterns of work

People change jobs, take breaks, pursue multiple careers and take on work that technology now makes possible. The average tenure for millennials is shorter than older generations. Besides the firms get acquired, merged and sold off. A division where someone may have worked gets hived off. How does a future employer verify the applicant’s credentials? People move between countries for employment. It is hard to verify the authenticity of employment records. Candidates with fake certificates routinely get hired by a rival firm after being rejected by a firm that uses a rigorous and expensive background verification process.

A distributed ledger that is tamper-proof could solve this problem for the employer and the employee.

The scenarios are equally complex for job-seekers. Their previous employer may have been acquired or gone into bankruptcy. A small independent startup may have been acquired by a giant and then spun off into a different division altogether. The person may have remained in the same job and in the same team. But the name of the employer may have mutated several times over. Blockchain tech could help track each change and establish the credentials even as the names of the employer change.

Open questions

Every piece of the digital tsunami will raise questions of data ownership, access and privacy. The laws will have to evolve to address the new world of work. Should the employer post performance data of the employee in its records that are searchable by others? Should psychometric test results be accessible to a future employer? Right now there are more questions than answers. But one thing is certain, HR will have no choice but to start embracing blockchain technology and redesign the notion of trust in organisations.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Author

Abhijit Bhaduri is a coach to CXOs and advisor to organizations on issues of leadership. He is the former Chief Learning Officer of Wipro. He has led HR teams at Microsoft, PepsiCo, Colgate & Tata Steel. He is on the Advisory Board of the prestigious CLO program by the Univ of Pennsylvania. He is on the Governing Council of MICA, Ahmedabad. A popular keynote speaker, he has spoken at TEDx, INK, NASSCOM and at several top B Schools in India and abroad. He can be reached at abhijitbhaduri@live.com

Abhijit Bhaduri is a coach to CXOs and advisor to organizations on issues of leadership. He is the former Chief Learning Officer of Wipro. He has led HR tea. . .

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Author

Abhijit Bhaduri is a coach to CXOs and advisor to organizations on issues of leadership. He is the former Chief Learning Officer of Wipro. He has led HR teams at Microsoft, PepsiCo, Colgate & Tata Steel. He is on the Advisory Board of the prestigious CLO program by the Univ of Pennsylvania. He is on the Governing Council of MICA, Ahmedabad. A popular keynote speaker, he has spoken at TEDx, INK, NASSCOM and at several top B Schools in India and abroad. He can be reached at abhijitbhaduri@live.com

Abhijit Bhaduri is a coach to CXOs and advisor to organizations on issues of leadership. He is the former Chief Learning Officer of Wipro. He has led HR tea. . .